NRC expected to reveal findings on Pilgrim at Tuesday meeting

Monday

Mar 20, 2017 at 10:02 PMMar 22, 2017 at 6:27 AM

Christine Legere / Cape Cod Times

PLYMOUTH – Entergy Corp. spent $3.2 million for 12,000 hours in required federal inspections at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station during 2016 because of the plant’s status as one of the worst performers in the country.

But despite the discovery of a long list of problems related to faulty equipment and lax staff performance, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced the company will be allowed to refuel the Plymouth reactor this spring and continue to operate.

That’s not the conclusion Pilgrim opponents were looking for.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission can expect to be grilled by an angry public during a doubleheader set for 6 p.m. today at Memorial Hall in Plymouth.

The agency will provide an overview of another troubled year at Pilgrim and it will also supply much-anticipated details on problems federal experts found during a recent three-week special inspection.

Whatever those infractions might be, they aren’t going to be enough for an ordered shutdown.

“At present, Pilgrim does not have conditions present that would mandate an outage or prevent the plant’s refueling,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan wrote in an email Thursday.

Heather Lightner, a Plymouth resident and president of Concerned Neighbors of Pilgrim, said that “short of a catastrophic failure,” it appears nothing will prevent refueling and continued operation.

“It seems like the public’s concerns and requests are inconsequential,” Lightner said.

Many plant watchdogs are still seething over a Jan. 30 meeting with the NRC. At the meeting, their calls for Pilgrim’s immediate shutdown were ineffective despite a long list of alarming observations made by the leader of a special inspection team in an in-house email that was mistakenly leaked to the public in December.

At the January meeting, Donald Jackson, the NRC official who wrote the email, said he anticipated that Pilgrim would be cited for up to 15 violations once the special inspection wrapped up.

Today, the public will be looking to get details on the violations, but some doubt there will be consequences.

“There is no reason why we should expect anything less than another whitewash of the real life description of the violations found in that email from the chief inspector of the final inspection at Pilgrim,” wrote Janet Azarovitz, a Falmouth resident, on behalf of the Pilgrim Legislative Advisory Coalition. “History has proven the NRC is the lapdog of the nuclear industry.”

Sheehan wrote in an email that agency officials are aware of the public’s dissatisfaction but expect “there will be a good exchange of information” at today’s session.

“We recognize that there are strong views when it comes to Pilgrim,” Sheehan wrote. “We are striving to be as transparent as possible when it comes to our oversight of the plant ...”

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station was placed in Category 4, one step above ordered shutdown, in September 2015 because of Entergy’s failure to adequately address equipment problems that caused or complicated a string of unplanned reactor shutdowns. Since then, federal authorities have criticized Pilgrim operators for putting together correction plans but never following through and making the corrections.

During operation in 2016, Pilgrim experienced an assortment of equipment failures, frequently in systems where problems were already known. In its annual assessment letter published earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concluded Pilgrim would remain classified in Column 4, but further concluded the reactor functioned well enough to preserve public health and safety.

Diane Turco, president of Cape Downwinders, pointed out that the NRC commented in its own fourth-quarter report on Pilgrim that public safety is not a priority at Entergy. “So without calling for shutdown, public safety is not a priority for the NRC either,” Turco said.

Federal officials will discuss their special-inspection findings with Entergy officials during today’s meeting. “We respect the agency’s role and take its findings seriously,” wrote Entergy spokesman Patrick O’Brien. “Additionally, we understand that there is still work to be done, and we continue to work to improve performance and meet the high standards of both the NRC and our own company.”

Today’s meeting is scheduled for 6–9:15 p.m. in Memorial Hall, 83 Court St., Plymouth. The hall will open at 5 p.m. Those who want to speak must sign up.

Deconstructing Pilgrim: Inspection report uncovers more violations
NRC opens Pilgrim review to public
Five violations found at Pilgrim plant

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